Carefully examine your financial targets before you pull the bankruptcy trigger. While bankruptcy often takes care of immediate debts (and usually stops foreclosure), it has long-term consequences. It may fix present problems, but create problems for your future in terms of your credit score. Bankruptcy tends to limit more severely your ability to get a loan for a house, a car, or an education.

Once upon a time there was a father who owned a lovely plot of land where he had lived for years and years. He maintained a good and healthy lifestyle full of fresh air and plenty of vegetables, but still the father knew that he would not live forever, and so he decided to do a little estate planning. He wanted his son to inherit everything, so he went ahead and put everything in his son’s name, including the land on which he lived, that way his son would have it all and not have to wait for probate. The only problem was, when the father rece

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but intent can get you convicted of shoplifting.

Intent to steal can get you in trouble—you do not even have to leave the store to get arrested for shoplifting. Furthermore, a jury only needs reasonable doubt to convict you of shoplifting—they do not need to go as far as beyond the shadow of a doubt for this crime.

The spin cycle of revolving credit goes something like this: you spend what you do not have on items you cannot afford, so you charge purchases on a credit card where your debt racks up large interest fees. You can break the cycle and build better credit with these simple New Year’s resolutions:

SpaceX scrubbed their launch on Tuesday, they have taken a few days to correct their problems, and they will try it again on Saturday. The same thing happens with home foreclosure cases that get dismissed.

Having the landlord shut off your heat is not ideal for your personal comfort. It could also mean a cold hard settlement to you as the tenant. While air conditioning is optional for landlords to offer, renters are entitled to live in units with water, electricity, garbage service, elevators (where appropriate), refrigeration, gas (where appropriate), and heat.

SpaceX had a failure to launch yesterday, but not same-sex marriage. A lawful marriage is now a choice for same-sex couples in Florida, which could create a new necessity for the gay and lesbian community: divorce.

Who is going trick-or-treating dressed as you—and so out of season! An identity thief could be treating himself at the expense of your good credit. The Department of Justice has a pneumonic to help you avoid becoming the victim of identity theft: SCAM.

S is for “Stingy.” Be stingy about giving out your personal and financial information.